Innovation is directly linked to the generation of new ideas or the implementation of ideas into products, processes, or services that create dynamism of the national economic growth; and is synonymous to the increase of employment from the pure profit creation of the business enterprise. In today's society, innovation is a very important issue and element that is sometimes overrated or underrated, at both extremes. Innovation is even linked to the “upgrade”, the “new version”, “new features”, and “new releases” as popularized by the technology industry, specifically the mobile sector.
Innovation is the essence of the survival and growth of an organization. In principle, organizations that do not adopt innovation as part of its culture and strategy fails, while those that constantly seek to innovate and maintain such innovation culture prospers. Simply, innovation is a defining factor to the success of the organization for it does not only warrants the creation of new products, it is also the perfection and improvement of processes and perspective. It encompasses the entirety of an organization.
However, innovation is not just importance because of its economic and financial outcomes, innovation also provides avenue for education and information. It creates massive opportunities for learning and exploration. Rather than being confined to the current limits of information, an innovative spirit looks for other things and finds way to make things better. This means that innovation, therefore, is an encompassing phenomenon that transcends all areas of life, society, nation, or the world.
But how does innovation is adopted and implemented?
Of course, it is always one to think of a new idea, but how this is implemented and realized is another value to consider. The implementation of innovation becomes the focal point of everything because when the implementation of innovation fails, an excellent innovation also fails. This is the reality. The ingenuity of an idea is always the last weapon to success, but the implementation of that idea. And in this case, some companies failed to succeed, only few were, and still are, able to make innovation a driving knot of their success.
Take the case of Apple. They started out with the ancestor of all personal computers – Apple I and the Macintosh. Those products were successful, but the next ones were doomed from the start, especially with the portable computer that's no actually portable with its 7-kilogram weight. And in the first decades of the 21st century, Apple gained momentum with its iMac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Until today, after the death of its eccentric founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, Apple remains at the top.
What had happened to Apple then? It was all because of innovation. First, it is about the innovation of attitude, perception and values. Apple won't survive the market competition with the rise of its rival – Microsoft if it won't change its perception about the market. And Apple did change. The value of innovation won't be real and won't be implemented if the organization is not willing to change its attitude toward change itself. Apple had to end the production of expensive computers, to forget about some of its desires to add unnecessary or sometimes luxurious features to its products. But later Apple also reverted back to its culture of expensive and rick functionality, which was a success.
Second, Apple endeavored to new opportunities and new products. Apple had to change its attitude and even change its business – from Apple Computer to simply Apple. And this will be Apple's greatest innovation step – the iPhone and its relatives. Touch-screen was already a known feature, although it just small number of mobile products alone. And from there Apple worked to innovate; for Apple why not make mobile phones simpler, more expressive, and perhaps more fashionably elegant? These are all embedded in the iPhone – and the iPhone becomes Apple's household catch, not just in regional scale, but also globally.
Third, Apple is sick with quality – and Jobs started it all. With innovation, there is no perfect quality; there is no end. There's always an error that must be resolved and there's always a better one. Perhaps, this is why Apple successfully captured the global market. As much as people are wanting for quality and the best, Apple also yearns to have it and deliver to users. Quality in innovation is a very strict factor; perfection is quality. Until today, this is adopted by Apple for this innovative idea was a success.
And with the innovation that was brought by Apple, organizations want to replicate its success – and the people benefited from Apple's innovation. Apple is an industry leader that grabbed the baton of bringing more value on the US economy – and even to China's (with the innovative idea of outsourcing to reduce cost of production). People got their jobs, got their money, and can not buy Apple products. Just the innovative management idea of Henry Ford; Ford paid more than the average even doubled than the minimum to enable workers to pay for the cost of having a car. And look at Ford now.
With all the discussions of innovation, there are some issues that are left unattended. Innovation is not just about computers, this is a restricted belief. It even crosses to the innovation on the way one plants crops, or even to the way people in Southeast Asia use the Asian buffalo to carry their luggage from the mountain tops down yonder. Innovation is the breed of innovation, but it always the mother of necessity. Nonetheless, innovation becomes dead when people start to think that innovation happens automatically. Innovation becomes ill when people thinks that computers just do the innovation.
Innovation is a product of the mind of a person, per se. Then, it is implemented by an individual who wants to test the effectiveness of the idea. From there, innovation becomes the subject of imitation, which also becomes innovation in itself. And so on the cycle goes. But deep within the cycle, there is always a mind, a hand, and will of a person for innovation is man's.
